Chapter 20: Ground Pounders
Cira awoke to the blurriness that always accompanied the opening of eyes after unconsciousness. It was one of the mandatory laws of the galaxy that vision was to be blurry after that. But when her natural stubbornness and general annoyance broke through, she found herself looking up at the brown(and slightly greenish) ceiling that had to be in the Great Temple. Her ears began to refocus and soon picked up far too many voices at once, none of them even making an attempt to break through the general din.
But then she caught sight of Master Hamner, who looked much worse for wear considering how he’d looked last time they had seen the Jedi Master. He had definitely been through a fight...or four. But he seemed to take notice of her returning to the moment and quickly stepped over and next to the small cot she found herself laying on. In his usual firm voice, Master Hamner said, “Its good to see you awake. Now how long do you plan to take up space down here?”
“Huh...?” Cira blinked a few times before turning both ways to really take in the area. The entire room, what had once been a giant storage section, was filled with cots similar to the one she was in. Most of them were occupied by students in various stages of health, though there were even some with dark-tunic-clad Shadow Academy students who were still unconscious...but tied down just to be safe. From the general feel of chaos, Cira figured she could only have been out for an hour at most.
“Twenty minutes,” Master Hamner answered her unspoken question while doing his best to help her to sit up straight, “We’ve one what we could as quickly as possible. As you can see, things are a bit tight in here so it isn’t perfect. The broken bone in your arm has been set and should be okay if you be careful, but don’t push it. Same goes for your leg. Keep the weight off of it out there. The Force was able to help with the rest of it.”
Cira was no fool. She knew what was going to happen next, and knew that she was ready for it despite the fact that she wasn’t completely aware of just everything yet. And that brought up a vital question, “Where are the others?”
“Cowan just finished clearing the upper levels of the Temple, but the bombers have been destroyed so we’re safe for now,” the Jedi Master said as Cira slowly got to her feet and tested her leg. To her surprise, he sighed, “There’s been no sign of Esah or Gant since they brought the first group of students down here.”
“They’re not...”
“Its impossible to tell right now,” Master Hamner admitted, though quietly. His voice then returned to its usual hardness and he gently patted her on the back, “Lightsaber’s on your belt. Get up there and help finish this.”
There was no arguing with that. And besides, she had now figured out just how to walk without causing any pain. Her arm was going to make things difficult, but she knew that working out just how to not re-break it wouldn’t take too much trouble. If something started to hurt, sense said to stop. So she was in the turbolift in a few more moments with a couple other patched up students. They all exchanged silent glances, none of them knowing what to expect when they got up to the hangar.
And then the turbolift stopped. There was the longest of seconds where nothing happened...and then the door hissed open. It revealed a scene that was not all that much different from how any of them had left it when they’d been dragged down. The few ships left were pushed to the side and out of the way to give a good view of the open hangar door far on the opposite side from the wall where all the turbolifts were. Towards the hangar, red lances of blaster bolts arced back and forth. Different coloured lightsaber blades could be seen here and there, and bright flashes of white showed where two of the blades were meeting.
The fight hadn’t moved one meter. Or rather, it could have, but it was right back where Cira had left it. But it was easy to notice the one major difference. There were much more red lightsabers than those of any other colour. The Jedi students had not had intense training in combat...there had been some, but obviously not enough from the number of injured. While the numbers may had been in their favor before, the advantage had switched. Which meant just charging in and swinging the lightsaber wasn’t going to push this fight back one bit.
Cira’s hand lashed out and grabbed the shoulder of one of the other students with her as they ran straight for the fight. Immediately upon stopping the young student, a male Duros of roughly the same age as her, she nodded off to the side, “We need to get around and flank them.”
The Duros nodded his large, dark-blue head before also grabbing another student. In a moment, three of them were heading around to attempt to outflank who knew how many of the Shadow Academy’s troops. None of the three of them were Corellian. In fact, Cira was the only human among the three...but there was a mutual decision that odds were best ignored in what they were going to attempt. Sometimes, it was just best to act and trust in the Force.
Maybe all that training wasn’t going to waste, after all.
* * * *
Not everyone was on the line and attempting to hold the hangar. Cowan had fallen in with a group who had come up with a similar plan to Cira’s. However, they weren’t going to be heading around to flank at all. Instead, the idea was to stop the shuttles that were still bringing down fresh attackers. Unlike with Cira, there was actually a sizable group heading out into the forest where the shuttles had been seen landing and taking off again. Sizable being a dozen, including Cowan. Most were human, but they were a very diverse group in both age and training. But what really mattered was the determination and listening to the Force...and that was something all of them shared, lightsaber or not.
“Shuttle coming down!” a green-skinned Rodian student, one of the older ones and nearly done with his training, called back to them. He had taken point, and was actually very well camouflaged in his brown tunic. It was amazing how the green and the brown made him fade into the forest around them.
Cowan nodded, knowing the Rodian(who’s name was escaping him at the moment) would see, then motioned for two of the younger students, a brother and sister from Coruscant, to follow him around. There was not a stated plan on how to attack the shuttles, but everyone seemed to be individually coming to something that would likely do the job.
Ahead of them was the small clearing where some of the shuttles were setting down and unloading the troops...and some supplies, according to the rodent-like Chandra-Fan among the students who had scouted even farther ahead thanks to his small size. The supplies was the worrying part. And Cowan could see a few crates next to one of the shuttles that was already down.
“I see three,” the brother whispered.
Cowan nodded, “When everyone’s ready, we’ll go for the nearest. You two grab those crates and get them back here and out of the way.”
Normally, Cowan would have expected an argument from this. These were, essentially, two kids...probably barely sixteen years old. Stereotype said they should be desperate for adventure and action. But these two young humans were caught up in something else, and their Jedi training helped to steer them to the correct course of action. Both nodded together.
And so they waited for an undetermined signal. They would simply know it. The fourth shuttle found a spot and slowly finished its descent. There was a small thump as its landing struts set down on the ground, and then a hiss of the ship that indicated it to be as old as design as it looked. Imperial but somehow looking older and more cobbled together than any Imperial commander would ever have allowed. But then something happened. Something...clicked. That was it. The signal.
As one, the ten students charged out of the clearing and straight for the four shuttles. It didn’t matter that only four of them had lightsabers, and that only another two had blasters. Unarmed or not, they were all still Jedi, and they were not going to let their home be destroyed.
